Silver Bracelet 09: Charlie
by Brandon
Summary: In which anxiety is examined.


TITLE: Charlie   
SPOILER WARNING: Lazarus; The Blessing Way; Paper Clip   
RATING: PG-13, for a little bad language   
CONTENT WARNING: None.   
CLASSIFICATION: SRA, MSR. But you already knew that, right?   
SUMMARY: Mulder is invited to the Scully family's Twelfth Night celebration, and discovers that there is more involved than he had realized. A Silver Bracelet story.   
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Season 6 hasn't happened; this is an alternate timeline (that phrase seems less pretentious than "alternate universe"; don't ask me why) which diverges from what we've seen on the tube sometime after FTF.   
Also: This story is part of a series called "The Silver Bracelet". Previous entries are available on my web page: http://www.avalon.net/~publius/MyStories.html You can probably get by without reading the others; all you really need to know to understand this one is that M&S are involved in a new and rather fragile romantic relationship.   
  


Charlie 

by Brandon D. Ray   


Baltimore, MD   
January 6, 10:22 a.m. 

With a sigh of resignation, Fox Mulder climbed from his car, grabbed his overnight bag from the passenger seat and headed up the walk towards Margaret Scully's front door. He knew he'd been invited; he knew he would be welcomed with open arms, and not just by his partner. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he shouldn't really be here, and that someone had made a mistake. 

He stood for a moment on the front porch and considered the matter. It wasn't that he had any doubts of her love -- not anymore. His last lingering insecurities on THAT score had finally been laid to rest on New Year's Eve. But still something bothered him, and he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. 

Something was different. 

He shook his head in exasperation. No doubt it would come to him -- and probably at the least convenient possible moment. Story of my life,>> he thought, and reached out and rang the doorbell. 

A voice called out from inside: "Just a moment!" Then footsteps -- not Dana's; Maggie's -- and the door swung open and he was stepping into her welcoming embrace. 

"Fox!" she said. "I'm so glad you could make it! Twelfth Night wouldn't be the same without you." Then she released him and turned to the front stairs. "Dana! Guess who's here?" 

Mulder heard a door upstairs open and close, then Scully appeared at the head of the stairs. He felt a lump in his throat as he watched a radiant smile ignite her features. "Mulder!" Then somehow she was at the foot of the stairs and in his arms, and for just a moment the rest of the world went away. 

"I've missed you," he murmured, pushing his nose into her hair. It smelled clean and fresh, and uniquely Scully. And to think I used to LIKE perfumes and scented shampoos.>> "God, what's it been? Five whole hours?" 

"Me too," she said. She pulled slightly away and looked up at him affectionately for moment; then she went up on her toes and kissed him, deeply and thoroughly. 

Mulder felt himself being overwhelmed with passion, and the most surprising part of it was that he was not even tempted to resist the emotions washing over him. He'd tried for so long to lock his feelings up, to hide them behind a wall of sarcasm and wisecracks, but somehow she'd found the key and let herself in, then stood quietly waiting until he finally found the courage to acknowledge her presence. 

Whatever had been bothering him a few moments ago, it certainly wasn't this. 

After a timeless interval Mulder became aware of approaching footsteps, and reluctantly ended the kiss and lifted his gaze to see Maggie coming down the staircase. He hadn't noticed her leave. 

"I took your bag upstairs for you," she said by way of explanation. Mulder wondered for a moment whether she was annoyed or embarrassed at this unaccustomed public display of affection, but the smile on her face and the twinkle in her eyes told him otherwise. Maggie continued, "So, Dana, do you still want to come with me? I'll understand if you say no." 

Mulder looked down at the woman in his arms and raised an eyebrow. 

"Mom and I were about to go out and run some errands," Scully said. "Shouldn't take more than an hour, but they really need to get done. I hope you don't mind. I'd invite you along, but it's kind of a girls' day out sort of thing." She looked up at him anxiously. "We weren't expecting you quite this early." 

He smiled and kissed her again, lightly and briefly. "That's fine. Run along and have a good time." He released her from the embrace. "I'll just get changed and maybe clean up a bit." 

A moment later he was standing at the front window, watching Maggie's car pull out of the drive and onto the street. As it disappeared around the corner he sighed and turned back to face the living room. 

Had it really only been nine days since the last time he'd been in this room? It seemed like forever. So much had happened; so much had changed. 

He walked over to stand in front of the sofa, and let the memories come flooding back. He'd spent the most important hour of his life on this sofa, back on Christmas evening. He'd thought he'd lost everything, that his life was over, and then by some miracle it all had changed and he'd been pulled back from the brink and into Scully's arms. Idly, he wondered if Maggie would sell him the sofa. It ought to be in a museum, preserved for posterity. 

With a conscious effort he pulled himself out of his reverie, and remembered that he was still wearing his work clothes. Changed; he had to get changed so he could start to relax and enjoy the evening that lay ahead. 

He took the stairs two at a time, then strode briskly down the hallway and pulled open the door to the guest room. He had already moved into the center of the room and was looking around for his overnight bag when he realized that there was someone lying on the bed. 

"S-sorry," Mulder said, backing hastily towards the door. "I didn't realize anyone was here." 

The man sprawled on the bed smiled and sat up, putting aside the book he'd been reading as he bounced to his feet. "That's okay, I was just killing some time," he said. He took two steps forward and held out his hand. "I'm Charlie Scully. You must be Mulder." 

Mulder automatically took the other man's hand as his mind went into overdrive. Charlie? Of course he knew Scully had a younger brother, but he'd never met the man -- and Fox Mulder's track record with her older brother was less than encouraging. He felt his defensive walls start to go up. 

Charlie broke the handshake, still smiling, and seemed to be studying his face. The smile broadened until it was almost a smirk, and he said, "Relax, Mulder. I'm not Bill. Now you want to tell me why you came busting into my room?" 

"I, uh, didn't know you were here," Mulder repeated. "I'm sorry. I was just looking for my overnight bag. Your mother brought it upstairs for me, and I usually stay in this room, so..." He heard his voice trail off, and cursed himself for his inarticulateness. 

Charlie nodded, still smiling. "Well that makes sense, but she didn't bring it here. Shall we see if we can find it?" 

Without waiting for a response, the younger man led the way back into the hallway and stood for a moment, hands on hips. Suddenly he turned to face Mulder and said, "There are two ways we can do this: We can use our heads and try to think it through, or we can take the brute force approach and just open every door. You choose." He still wore the friendly smile, but now there was just a hint of a challenge in his voice. 

Mulder thought about that for a moment. He didn't understand why Charlie was making such a big deal about this, but it was apparent that picking the right answer was important. Finally he said, "Let's think it through." 

Charlie clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Good choice." He turned and walked slowly down the hall until he stood more or less halfway between the stairs and his own room, then turned to face Mulder again. "Now, over at ONI we have two major issues that we look at: Capabilities and intentions. Are you with me so far?" 

Mulder nodded. He understood the concepts, but where Charlie was taking this was a complete mystery to him. 

"Good." The younger man nodded. "Now, capabilities aren't much of an issue in this case; Mom COULD have put the bag in any of the three remaining rooms." He gestured broadly with his left hand, then walked slowly back towards Mulder. "So the question before the house is what Mom's intentions were when she brought the bag up here." 

Charlie looked at Mulder appraisingly for just a moment, then turned and stepped across the hall to the door across from his own and rapped lightly on it. "Now behind Door Number One," he continued, "is my mother's bedroom." He glanced back over his shoulder at Mulder. "We shall assume a priori that she didn't put your bag in THERE." 

Mulder felt himself flush. "That seems like a reasonable assumption, Monty," he said. He thought, just maybe, that he was beginning to see where this was heading. 

Charlie smirked again, and moved down the hall to the next door. "Now this one," he said, "used to be Bill's room, back when we were teenagers. Mom uses it as a sewing room now, but she does have a day bed in there, so it isn't beyond the realm of possibility that she put your bag in there." He turned to look at Mulder, leaning back against the door and crossing his arms across his chest. "Do YOU think she might have put it in there?" 

Mulder looked back at the younger man for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders. "It's possible, I suppose," he said, keeping his tone as light as he could. He felt a sudden tension in his shoulders, and he wished Charlie would stop playing this game, whatever it was. 

Charlie nodded. "It is possible," he agreed. "But not likely, given the circumstantial evidence already in hand." He pushed himself upright and stepped across the hall to the one remaining door. "And then there's Door Number Three," he said. "Dana's room. Actually, Dana and Missy's room, but..." 

Now younger man's voice trailed off, and a hint of sadness came and went in his eyes so quickly Mulder wasn't quite sure it had been there. Then Charlie smiled again, and shook his head. "Sorry. Now where were we?" 

"Door Number Three," Mulder said, trying to keep the tension out of his voice. 

"Ah, yes," Charlie replied. "Door Number Three. Dana's room." He looked speculatively at Mulder, then nodded. "So make your pick, Mulder. Which will it be?" 

Mulder cleared his throat. "Is there some purpose to this, Charlie?" 

"Of course." Mischief glinted in the younger man's eyes, and he added, "We're trying to find your overnight bag, right?" 

Mulder snorted. "If you say so. I choose Door Three." 

Charlie's smile widened into a happy grin, and he twisted the handle and pushed the door open with a flourish. "Ta da!" 

Mulder stepped into the room and looked around, and there was the bag, sitting on the floor next to the bureau. He heard a chuckle and turned to see Charlie lounging in the doorway, the same grin still on his face. "What do you know?" the younger man said. "Got it on the first try. And you don't even have to take home a year's supply of Jell-O Pudding." He stood upright and twiddled his fingers. "You go ahead and get changed, or whatever, then come on downstairs and I'll buy you a cup of coffee." And then he was gone. 

Mulder stood silently in the middle of the room for several minutes after the younger man had left, trying to get his thoughts in order. Charlie had been playing with his mind, that much was clear -- the reason for it, though, completely eluded him. Finally he shook his head and gave up trying to figure it out. The Scullys were strange, all of them. The only one he really understood was Maggie, and that was probably just because he hadn't spent much time with her. Well, it's all part of the package, Mulder,>> he reminded himself. This is what you wanted, right?>> 

Oh, yeah. 

A few minutes later, having changed from his suit to a pair of jeans and a polo shirt, Mulder wandered into the kitchen, to find Charlie working with a coffee maker. Mulder crossed the room to lean against the sink, then turned and watched the younger man work for a moment. 

He'd seen pictures of Charlie, of course: Scully had several of them, and Mulder also remembered one rainy Saturday when Maggie had taken it into her head to walk him through the family photo albums. Still, the camera hadn't managed to capture everything about this man. Oh, it had recorded the basic facts: The red hair, the light dusting of freckles, the blue eyes, the general shape of his face. But it had missed the easy friendliness, as well as the inner core of strength and self-assurance. Charlie was pretty clearly a Scully, Mulder concluded, but he was also obviously his own man in a lot of ways. 

Finally Charlie punched the on button and turned to look at Mulder, an amused smile on his face. "Find what you're looking for?" 

Mulder smiled back and shook his head. "I'm not sure." 

"Well, let me know if you do figure anything out; I'm sure Mom and Dana would be interested." He moved over to the kitchen table and dropped into a chair; Mulder followed suit. "I suppose you're wondering what the hell that was all about upstairs," the other man went on easily. 

"The thought had crossed my mind." 

"it's really pretty simple," Charlie said. "I'm scoping you out." 

Mulder felt his eyebrows raise. "Scoping me out?" 

The younger man nodded, and seemed faintly surprised. "Sure. What did you expect? Haven't you been taken home to meet the girl's family before?" 

Mulder blinked in surprise, and suddenly all of his own uncertainty and disquiet about being there seemed to fall into place. Was THAT what had been bothering him? Was THAT what this was all about? 

Charlie's voice, still friendly and good-natured, dragged him back out and prevented him from examining the idea. "Come on, Mulder! Wipe the stunned look off your face; I asked you a question." 

Mulder looked again at the younger man, and noted the humor dancing in his eyes. "Sorry," he said. "I was just...startled." 

The other man chuckled. "Scared shitless, more like," he commented. He glanced up over Mulder's shoulder, and added, "Looks like the coffee's ready." 

Charlie rose from his chair and busied himself for a moment with the coffee machine, giving Mulder a chance to try to organize his thoughts. Being brought home to meet the girl's parents. Yeah, that made a lot of sense, now that the idea had been put into his head. It explained the nervousness, the general feeling of being out of place, and the fact that he couldn't seem to get comfortable, despite the fact that he'd visited this house a number of times in the past. 

He'd thought to himself as he stood on the front porch that something had changed, and of course it had: His relationship with Scully had changed, and now he was no longer her partner and friend, stopping by for a friendly visit, but a lover and, perhaps, a potential husband, presenting himself to her family for their approval. He nodded slowly to himself. Yeah. It made quite a bit of sense. 

Charlie placed a cup and saucer in front of him, then sat down again on the other side of the table, holding his own cup in both hands. Absently, Mulder took a sip of the hot liquid, and again he raised his eyebrows, looking across the table at Charlie. "Does telepathy run in your family, Charlie?" 

The other man smiled, and shook his head. "What do you mean?" 

"No cream, one sugar," Mulder replied. "How did you know?" 

Charlie chuckled. "Oh, that. Dana told me." 

Mulder blinked. "Your sister told you how I like my coffee?" 

"Among other things. She also told me your favorite color, what brand of cereal you like, how you like your steaks done, and about ten thousand other things about you." Mulder stared at the younger man, and Charlie laughed out loud. "Man, you look like a deer caught in the headlights! Relax, Mulder; I'm your friend, not your enemy. Your secrets are safe with me." 

"When did she...." Mulder let his voice trail off. He wasn't sure he really wanted the answer to that question. 

Charlie gave it to him anyway. "When did she tell me all this stuff? Oh, off and on, over the last three years. Dana and I have always been close, Mulder; we email each other constantly, call on the phone when we can. And for the last three years or so you have been Topic A." 

"Jesus. Three YEARS?" 

"Yeah. Now let me think....it would have been the fall of '95...October I think. She'd mentioned you in passing before, of course, but that's when you started really taking over." Charlie paused for a moment as if suddenly recalling something. "Now that I think about it," he added, "that's also about the time I started hearing about you from Bill." 

Mulder thought about that for a moment. October of '95. That would have been right after that fiasco in New Mexico. He winced. Right after Melissa died. That was also about the time he and Scully had started spending a significant amount of social time together. He nodded. It fit. 

He looked at Charlie again. "So for the last three years," he said, "you've been getting all sorts of...information about me from your sister." It wasn't quite a question. 

"That's right." The man once again wore the amused grin that Mulder was rapidly come to like very much. "And not only from her. I've gotten regular reports from Mom, as well." 

"And Bill." 

Charlie shrugged. "And from Bill, too," he admitted. "I didn't take him very seriously, though. Bill can be a real prick when he wants to be, and while it quickly became clear that Dana was equally biased in the other direction, Mom has never been one to be bamboozled by a silver-tongued outsider when one of her kids was involved. And Mom likes you, Mulder. A lot." 

"I like her, too." 

Charlie shook his head and smiled again. "Besides, you were an obvious improvement over Jack Willis, and that gave you extra brownie points from the outset, at least in MY book." He shivered theatrically. "For awhile I was afraid I was going to have HIM as a brother-in-law." 

Mulder hesitated. Scully's relationship with Willis had always been something of a mystery to him. The things he'd heard about Willis from other agents had not been positive, but Scully had never seemed to want to talk about it -- and since the man was dead it hadn't seemed to matter, nor had Mulder felt he had any right to pry into his partner's love life, until about ten days ago. But now he wanted to know, and here was Charlie, seemingly ready to give him at least a little information. 

"So did you scope HIM out at your family's Twelfth Night celebration, too?" he asked. 

The younger man looked surprised. "No," he said, shaking his head. "Of course not." 

"Why 'of course not'?" 

Charlie looked even more surprised. "He was never invited. How could he have been?" 

Now Mulder was confused. Just when I thought I was getting control of the conversation, too.>> "Uh, maybe I'm a little slow today, Charlie. WHY was it so impossible for him to have been invited?" 

Charlie just sat looking at him for a pair of minutes, and Mulder could almost hear the wheels spinning in the other man's head. Finally: "She didn't tell you, did she?" 

"Didn't tell me what?" The unease Mulder had felt earlier suddenly came swooping back down on him, and he felt the walls starting to close in. 

The other man hesitated, then said, "Mulder, Twelfth Night is a family holiday. JUST family. The only outsider I can think of who has ever been invited is Tara. And the only reason THAT happened was because the wedding was in less than three weeks, and Bill was out on a deployment. And even at that it took me and Dana and Missy the better part of a month to persuade Mom and Dad that it was okay to invite her." 

Mulder shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Then maybe I shouldn't be here," he said. 

Charlie shook his head. "No," he said. "No, I don't think so. If you weren't supposed to be here, you wouldn't be here." He smiled slightly. "Of course, Bill might have another take on the matter, if he were here, but even if he WAS here the decision wouldn't be his to make." 

"Maybe the rules have been relaxed," Mulder suggested. 

Again Charlie shook his head. "No. Mom's pretty flexible about most things, but not about this. You're here because Dana wanted you to be, and Mom agreed with her. That's utterly certain." He grinned. "You're lucky it's Dana who's stuck on you, rather than me. I wouldn't have had the guts to ask." 

Mulder chuckled. "Sorry, Charlie; you're not my type." Then he realized what he'd said, and couldn't keep from laughing out loud. "'Sorry, Charlie,'" he repeated. "I bet you heard that a lot as a kid." 

Charlie laughed with him. "Oh, yeah. I got so that I hated that fucking fish." After a moment he sobered again, and bit his lower lip. "Look, Mulder," he said. "I don't want you getting the wrong idea. It's been a lot of fun playing with your head and making the little mousie spin his exercise wheel, but you gotta understand that this is pretty serious, too. Dana's had boyfriends before, and she's had a couple of important relationships, but you're the first one who has ever really gotten under her skin. If you're not serious about this you could hurt her. A lot. And then Bill would hurt YOU." Pause. "And I'd hold you down for him." 

Mulder studied the other man's face for a moment. Coming from Bill those words would have instantly raised his hackles, but coming from Charlie they seemed...different somehow. Very softly: "I understand Charlie. And believe me, the last thing in the world I ever want to do is to hurt your sister. I love her so much, I don't even know how to describe it. She's...she's..." He struggled to find the words. "She's...everything." He shook his head. "God, that sounded incredibly lame, but that's the best I can do." 

"That's okay, Mulder," Charlie said, also very softly. "Lame is good. If you were the sort of man Bill thinks you are, you would have had a nice glib speech all prepped and ready. I'm happy to see that Bill is wrong. Not that there was ever any real doubt." He smiled briefly. "Bill LIKED Willis." 

Mulder thought about that for a moment. Then: "So that was part of the test?" 

"Yup." Charlie nodded. "That was part of the test. And you passed with flying colors." His easy, infectious smile came back. "Take it easy, Mulder; everything's going to be fine. You've already passed muster with Mom, and she's a pretty shrewd judge of character. And as for me..." He paused and shrugged. "All I really want is for Dana to be happy. And it's pretty obvious that she is." 

At that moment Mulder heard the front door open, and then Scully's voice floated in from the living room. "Mulder? Mulder, where are you?" 

Mulder stood up. "I, uh, I'd better go see what she wants," he said. 

Charlie shook his head, and once more his smile broadened into a grin. "Man, you've got it bad." 

Mulder smiled back, still a little uncertain, then turned and went to find Scully.   
  


Fini   


[Go to the next Silver Bracelet story][1]

   [1]: Epiphany.html



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